Pat McCarthy

Pat McCarthy, born 1987, lives and works in Brooklyn and Andes, New York. He works primarily in sculpture, zines, and video, as well as staging social happenings, many of which include street food. McCarthy’s work deliberately traverses many mediums and disciplines to explore methods of storytelling.

Since 2012, much of his work is executed on his Brooklyn rooftop, engaging with the hundreds of domestic pigeons he is raising and flying. The cornerstone of his practice is the zine Born to Kill, begun in 2009 with 106 issues to date. Built by hand and printed on Xerox machines, the zines present poetic narratives of the experiments, constructions, and fugitive gestures of the artist.

McCarthy is a member of the collectives Satan Ceramics and 8 Ball Community. His work is in the collections of MoMA, New York; Fonds Régional d'Art Contemporain, Marseille; Museo Jumex, Mexico City; La Fab, Paris; and many libraries and private collections internationally.

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Solo Exhibitions
2023 Paradise - Hulias, Oslo, Norway
2023 NADA New York 2023 - Entrance, New York, NY
2022 Wedding, (two person exhibition with Maddy Ringold-Brown), NikNak, Andes, NY
2019 NikNak’s City Cart - Entrance, New York, NY
2018 Surfin’ Bird Odyssey - Boo Hooray Gallery, Montauk, NY
2017 Asphalt Paper - Practice Gallery, New York, NY
2017 Pat’s Pigeon Brunch - Boo Hooray Gallery, Montauk, NY
2016 Brick by Brick - Fonds Régional d'Art Contemporain, Marseille, France
2015 Shelters - Ever Gold Projects, San Francisco, CA
2015 Slabs - agnès b., New York, NY
2014 Pat’s Pigeon Club - Muddguts, Brooklyn, NY
2013 Delire Gallery, Brussels, Belgium

Selected Group Exhibitions
2023 Copy Machine Manifestos - Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY
2022 Points of Return, curated by RVAC - Hudson House, Hudson, NY
2022 For the Birds - Brooklyn Botanic Garden, Brooklyn, NY
2020 My Favorite Things 2 - International Art Books and Films Festival, Perpignan, France
2020 Avec le vent - Manifesta 13, Marseille, France
2019 Horology - Jack Hanley, New York, NY
2019 Stream Vibes - Shibuya Train Station, Tokyo, Japan
2019 Satan Ceramics, ZONA MACO - Galeria Mascota, Mexico City, Mexico
2018 Swamp Pavilion, Venice Biennale of Architecture - Lithuanian Pavilion, Venice, Italy
2018 Copie Machine 3 - PrintRoom, Rotterdam, Netherlands
2018 A History of Zines - MoMA PS1, New York, NY
2017 Making Public Domain - Middelheim Sculpture Museum, Antwerp, Belgium
2016 Eden - Aperture Foundation, New York, NY
2016 Satan Ceramics - Ever Gold Projects, San Francisco, CA
2015 The Newsstand - New Photography, MoMA, New York, NY
2015 Field Effects - le Cap, les Rencontres d’Arles Festival, Arles, France
2014 Thanks for Nothing - Muddguts, Brooklyn, NY
2014 The Smiley Face Show, Frieze London 2014 - Salon 94, London, United Kingdom
2014 Satan Ceramics - Salon 94, New York, NY
2014 It’s an Invasion - National Arts Club, New York, NY
2013 la Dernière Vague - la Friche de la Belle de Mai, Marseille, France
2013 In Praise of Chance and Failure - Family Business, New York, NY

Residencies
2016 Eden, with Sylvain Couzinet-Jacques & Aperture Foundation, North Carolina
2016 la Busserine, Logerim Foundation/FRAC PACA, Marseille
2012 Werner Herzog’s Rogue Film School, Los Angeles

Selected Artist Lectures (in person)
2019 Freshman class of Walid Raad - The Cooper Union, New York, NY
2018 Institute for Interspecies Art and Relations - Entrance, New York, NY
2017 Eat My Paper - Recyclart, Brussels, Belgium
2017 Making Public Domain - Middleheim Sculpture Museum, Antwerp, Belgium

Bibliography
2023 8 Ball Almanac, Nero
2018 Commonism: A New Aesthetics of the Real, Nico Dockx & Pascal Gielen, Valiz
2018 Street to Studio, Rafael Schacter, Lund Humphries
2017 The Newsstand, Rizzoli

Press
2023 Best Booths at NADA New York 2023 - Harrison Jacobs, ArtNews